Urban Water Issues - Alan Kolok, Professor, Biology, UNO

Alan S. KolokDirector, Nebraska Watershed Network

Water quality in Omaha: From nuisance to resource. 

Implementing a More Sustainable Future in Nebraska: Urban water quality.

September 25, 2013

The city of Omaha has some interesting water features …

… however Omaha’s most visible interactions with water have been negative.

Omaha

Missouri River

Platte River

Elkhorn RiverPapillion Creek

Omaha – A city

surrounded by water.

Omaha’s urban water quality challenge ?

How do you change urban water from a nuisance…

… to a resource ?

http://omahacso.com/program/sustainability/

Economic Affordability

Regulatory Compliance

Community Acceptance

The mission of the Nebraska Watershed Network is to involve students, in conjunction with local stakeholders, in projects that focus on the environmental stewardship of freshwater resources and the biota that those waterways support.

http://omahacso.com/program/sustainability/

Community Acceptance and the Nebraska Watershed Network

Crowdsourcing Environmental Stewardship

Wildlife Roadkill www.wildlifecrossing.net

Crowd Hydrology

Platte River

Elkhorn RiverMissouri River

The Elkhorn River

Research Station

Crowdsourcing water quality:“What’s in your Watershed Day 2011”

Omaha Boy Scout Troop 597 at the Elkhorn River Research Station.

Platte River

Elkhorn River Missouri

River

The presence of the atrazine can be used as a first-tier screening tool for agrichemical runoff.

Immediate reporting time

Inexpensive ($10 per sample)

Increased sample size

Reduced resolution (3 ppb)

A healthy dose of IT

Omaha Boy Scout Troop 597 at the Elkhorn River Research Station.

- Omaha Boy Scout Troop 597

- Norfolk Boy Scout Pack 124

- Ewing Public Schools

- Audubon Society of Omaha

- Nebraska Master Naturalists

- Sierra Club Missouri Valley

- Keep Fremont Beautiful

- Keep Norfolk Beautiful

- Upper Elkhorn River NRD

Volunteer Organizations :

www.unomaha.edu/envirotox

May 21, 2011 Watershed Day 2

96 tests, 53 positive hits.

0/15 0%

4/12 33%

49/6971%

Omaha

What’s in your Watershed Day 2013

Papillion Creek

Five Groups of students from Omaha North High School paired with Network Interns.

Five sampling points along Papillion Creek

Global Youth Service DayApril 26, 2013

What’s in your Watershed Day 2013Papillion Creek

Measurements taken:

pHTemperatureNitratesPhosphatesAtrazineDissolved oxygenColiform bacteria

New Orleans

Arkansas River

Ohio River

Missouri River

Illinois River

Minneapolis

What’s in your Watershed Day 2014Li’l Miss Atrazine

“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”

- Baba Dioum

“So… by looking at all the stuff that we alone have done, we’re just going to be seniors in High School,other kids our age or even  maybe a little bit younger can look into this and go…

…if they can they can do it why can’t we?”

“So, by our little small experiment we can get generations of kids, you know, to get involved in this stuff and really just…..

 ... make a difference in the world that we live

in today.”

Funding Agencies

Collaborators:Daniel Snow University of Nebraska – LincolnShannon Bartelt-Hunt University of Nebraska - LincolnTim Cowman University of South DakotaGraduate Students :Marlo Sellin-Jeffries Lindsey Sherretts-KnightAshley Jessick

Undergraduate Students :

Jason Weigel Kate Oien Bethany McAcyMolly Hartman Kelty Abbott Josh KrajewskiDebbie Akerly Erica Anderson Racine RangelNicole Alexander Nick Conoan Lucas Harrison

unonwn@unomaha.edu